E-gaming and e-commerce company Garena was unveiled as the new sponsor of S.League club Young Lions on Tuesday, according to CHANNEL NEWS ASIA. Garena inked a two-year deal with the club that is worth up to S$4M ($2.8M). The deal sees Garena providing S$2M ($1.4M) in cash, and a program budget of up to S$2M for the promotion and development of the team. In turn, the team will be known as the Garena Young Lions "and will wear shirts bearing the Shopee brand," which is Garena’s social-first, mobile-centric, C2C marketplace. According to the FA of Singapore, this is the "biggest sponsorship deal for an S.League club in the 21-year history of the domestic professional football competition." Garena is a leading platform provider of online entertainment and communication tools across Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Garena’s sponsorship deal "definitely surpasses that of other S.League clubs." For example, Linco Investments’ three-year sponsorship of Home United, from '14-16, is worth S$2M, while Tampines Rovers Krishna Ramachandra recently announced that the five-time League champions have garnered close to S$1M worth of cash and "in-kind sponsorship" for the upcoming season (CNA, 2/2).
